US peace group CODEPINK to visit Pakistan to protest drone strikes

Islamabad: An American peace delegation, organised by the activist group CODEPINK, is leaving for Pakistan next week to protest drone strikes that are believed to kill more innocent people than militants.

The 40-member delegation will meet with the families of drone victims, lawyers, academics, Pakistani politicians and US officials in order to promote peaceful relations between US and Pakistan.

CODEPINK, consists of women peace activists, said the delegation will march to South Waziristan in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan to protest the deadly US drone strikes that have killed more than 2,500 people.

“President Obama’s counter-terrorism chief John Brennan insists that US drones strikes aren’t harming innocent Pakistanis, but we know that’s not true, especially since the Obama administration calls all military-age males in the area ‘militants,” said CODEPINK co-founder Medea Benjamin.

The protest comes in the wake of a scathing report by New York University and Stanford lawyers that details how drone warfare affects citizens and humanitarian workers in Pakistan.

CODEPINK is a women-initiated grassroots peace and social justice movement working to end US funded wars and occupations, to challenge militarism globally, and to redirect resources into health care, education, green jobs and other life-affirming activities.